This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
With his oversized hat and toothy, aw-shucks mug, Johnny Bond could have been a comic sidekick in some old oater.
But thanks to his smooth baritone and well-strummed gee-tar, he made his mark in music — first as a backup picker for Gene Autry, then as a songwriter (he wrote Cimarron and Tomorrow Never Comes — ask your grandfolks), and finally as a bandleader in his own right in the ’30s and ’40s. Country and Western collects 31 cowboy classics originally recorded by the Standard Transcription Service for radio broadcast at the peak of his career. Along with standards and covers like Goodbye Old Paint, Mexicali Rose, Red River Valley and Tumbling Tumbleweeds, there’s a heaping helping of Bond originals like The First Rose, Heart and Soul, Sad and Blue and I’ll Step Aside — all sweetly crooned and politely backed by the tasteful licks of his Red River Valley Boys. Happy trails.
